Sevian Upsets So: The American Cup Day 1

GM Sam Sevian is on the brink of a 2700+ rating after beating the reigning U.S. Champion Wesley So in the first round of The American Cup. This brand-new tournament, featuring a double-elimination bracket, started on Wednesday in St. Louis.

Similar to the U.S. Championships, The American Cup has an "open" group (with male players only) and a women's group playing side by side, all but one representing the United States. In this new tournament a different and somewhat complicated format is being used for both groups.

The events are double-elimination brackets, with the first round consisting of two classical games (90+30) followed by a tiebreak in case of a tie (two 10+5 games followed by armageddon). So far, so good.

However, players who win their first-round matches move to a "Champions Bracket," while the losers of the first round move to an "Elimination Bracket" that doesn't have classical games but rapid (25+10). Only when players lose a match in the elimination bracket are they knocked out of the tournament.

"The format is very exciting," said GM Levon Aronian. "Normally, one mistake and you're gone in a knockout tournament. Here you have a chance to be kind of a zombie and come back to life!"

The first day of the open group saw two winners. We start with Sevian's upset victory, which got him to a 2699.2 live rating. If he draws with So on Thursday, Sevian will break 2700 for the first time (while pushing his opponent to the elimination bracket).

This game was a Nimzo-Indian that soon looked more like an Exchange Queen's Gambit Declined, with White putting his king's knight on e2. Where GM Mikhail Botvinnik was the one demonstrating the power of castling kingside and pushing the center, So tried an even sharper setup, castling queenside and sacrificing a pawn quickly for a fast attack.

However, returning the pawn and putting his king's bishop on e5 was an excellent decision by Sevian, who soon took over the initiative, despite leaving his queenside rook and bishop untouched. Black got a winning position, but it should be noted that in time trouble, So missed a chance to save himself.

The other winner was GM Levon Aronian, who played his first OTB game in the Saint Louis Chess Club under the American flag. He played GM Ray Robson for the first time and won in a kind of a reversed Benoni.

Aronian won a pawn, after what he felt was an inaccurate move by Robson, but had to give up his fianchettoed bishop for it. Then Robson failed to immediately find the correct setup that would have given enough compensation. Aronian's knowledge of the rook endgame, where pushing the f4-pawn wins the game, is instructive:

The first game to finish was the draw between GM Leinier Dominguez and GM Sam Shankland, who played a very theoretical Italian that was quite similar to Esipenko-Giri from Wijk aan Zee earlier this year. This time, the trade of three pawns for a piece led to equality.

Also in Caruana-Xiong, a Petroff, the result was a draw despite wild developments on the board and missed chances by both players. You can find all games at the end of the report. 

Of the three wins scored in the women's group, WGM Begim Tokhirjonova's was perhaps the most impressive. With the black pieces using lots of little tactics here and there, she nicely outplayed WGM Katerina Nemcova.

However, the only draw of the round was the most spectacular game of all. Greece's IM Stavroula Tsolakidou, the only player among the 16 not representing the U.S but who studies at Saint Louis University (SLU), should have finished her devastating attack: 

With each match consisting of two games, So, Robson, Yan, Nemcova, and WGM Tatev Abrahamyan are now all in must-win situations in order to force a rapid playoff.

All Games Day 1

The American Cup is an over-the-board event in St. Louis featuring some of the best grandmasters playing for the United States. Players compete in two distinct double-elimination events for a piece of the $300,000 prize fund.